Stage 1 - July 4: Liège-Charleroi, 202.5 km

Jaan jams 'em in Charleroi

Cancellara maintains Maillot Jaune

Despite the fact that it's only two weeks until his thirty-fifth birthday,
Ag2r's Estonian Express Jaan Kirsipuu is still one powerful sprinter. On a wet,
blustery day with a strong headwind that was more reminiscent of the spring
classics season than early July, Kirsipuu took the winners bouquet in a long
power sprint today in Stage One in Charleroi. Coming off a superb leadout by
Ag2r's other sprinter Jean-Patrick Nazon, then Norwegian powerhouse Thor Hushovd
(Crédit Agricole), Kirsipuu kicked it home to win a typically turbulent,
tumultuous sprint, his fourth career stage win in the Grande Boucle.

"Up until the Tour de France, I wasn't really in good condition and I did a
very bad prologue yesterday. But today at the halfway point in the stage, I
started feeling better and when I saw that I was going well in the intermediate
sprints, I got some more confidence," explained Kirsipuu.

"There was no decision before which if (Nazon) or me would be the main sprinter
today. At 30km from the finish, we talked. I told him I had good legs today
and he said he wasn't super... so I was lucky to get on Hushovd's wheel with
400 metres to go."

Speaking of his tight finish with Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen, Kirsipuu
smiled and said "I was afraid he might have passed me but when I looked over
to my left and saw him, I saw he wasn't too happy and realized I had won."

Sprinting in for third in his Norwegian champion's jersey, Viking-like Thor
Hushovd grabbed 8" second time bonus and closed the gap on Maillot Jaune Fabian
Cancellara to just 4". The Swiss Fassa Bortolo rider and his team battled the
wind, rain and competition to hang on to the precious yellow tunic.

"It's nice to keep the jersey today, but I have to give a big thank you to
my team," Cancellara commented. "I couldn't have done it without them."

The expected Petacchi-Cipollini sprinter showdown didn't materialize today,
as Petacchi's Fassa Bortolo's team may have done too much work early on defending
Fabian Cancellara's Maillot Jaune.

"I probably started my sprint too soon and came out in the wind where I lost
my momentum," explained Petacchi post-stage. "Today was a very tactical sprint.
Still, I'm disappointed (with 8th place) because I wanted to win today."

Mario Cipollini crashed early today on his left thigh, the same one he injured
in the Giro d'Italia in May. Although he didn't hurt himself badly, Cipollini
still had some pain and simply didn't feel great today, finishing 38th.

Lance Armstrong gave up his Maillot Vert to Hushovd and clearly Stage One wasn't
to the five time Tour de France champion's liking. "As it always at the beginning
of the Tour, today was a very nervous day…lots of crashes, lots of wind. Nobody
likes racing in these kind of conditions."

But Armstrong's USPS-Berry Floor team stayed close to the boss all day and
maintained their lead in the Tour team GC. Instigator of the day's major break,
Paolo Bettini (Quick.Step-Davitamon) took three KOM's and scored points in all
of them today to take the Tour's first Maillot Pois for best climber.

"This was our first objective in the Tour so I'm happy we could achieve it,"
Bettini said. "But I think this jersey is really for my teammate (Richard) Virenque."

Another black day for the Aussies today at the Tour de France, with Robbie
McEwen losing the stage by a half-wheel and Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis) crashing
with 4km to go and not scoring any points for his Maillot Vert quest. Then there
was back trouble for Brad McGee.

"My back is rough... I couldn't feel my legs today, I couldn't get any power
out of them. I hurt it last weekend and it's been on and off ever since," explained
McGee post-stage.

Brad and his teammate Matt Wilson finished six minutes behind, while Lotto-Domo
man Nick Gates had it worst of all; finishing last on the stage 30'38" down
after hitting his knee hard on his bars after a seemingly minor crash with 90km
to go forced him to chase alone all the way to Charleroi. Unfortunately, Gates
was six minutes outside the time limit today and was eliminated from the Tour.

How it unfolded

Lance Armstrong started today's Stage One wearing the Maillot Vert, the first
time the American has donned the green tunic since 2000, when he was runner-up
to David Millar in the Futuroscope TT. Early on, five riders attacked and got
away across the Ardennes climbs in the first half of the stage. With three Cat.4
and one Cat. 3 climbs in the first half of the stage, the KOM's would determine
the wearer of the first polka-dot jersey in Charleroi this afternoon. In the
break were Jens Voigt (CSC), Paolo Bettini (Quick.Step-Davitamon), Janek Tombak
(Cofidis), Bernhard Eisel (FDJeux.com) and Franck Renier (Brioches La Boulangère).

The front quintet was flying and after 55km their lead had increased over the
Fassa Bortolo led peloton to 3'45". Bettini was raging today and the pocket
powerhouse from Italy won three of the five KOM's to take the lead in the climber's
competition. By the feed zone in Rendeux, a light rain had began to fall and
domestiques began to shuttle back and forth with rain gear from the team cars.
The gap to the front group was now three minutes.

The slick roads began to cause occasional problems for the break as Voigt and
Renier missed a turn on the descent of the Cote de Borlon, and then Eisel touched
wheels while he was talking to his team car and fell hard on his rear end, but
got back up quickly and chased the break down again with nothing damaged but
his pride.

Behind the break, Fassa was pounding hard on the front through the streets
of Huy, where the Flèche Wallonne is run every April. The break's lead
began to diminish quickly and went under 30" in Modave with 88km to race at
the first intermediate sprint, won by Eisel. The Silver Train was steaming away
and their hard pace had split the peloton, with a 30 man group up front and
then the rest of the riders, including most of the Euskaltel team, Mario Cipollini
and McGee in a chase group 10" behind the main group.

Under the impulsion of Euskaltel, the second group came back to the front group
just as O'Grady (Cofidis) punctured, but his Cofidis team waited for him and
he got back on after a 10km chase. Meanwhile, the break was finally caught 1km
the second intermediate sprint in Wanze with 70km to go after 116km of liberty.
Fassa Bortolo rode right by to try and set up Cancellara for the time bonus,
but Hushovd got by him to take the 6" bonus, thus closing the gap on the Swiss
rider by 2".

The rain finally stopped and the strong headwinds quickly dried the roads off
as Kim Kirchen (Fassa Bortolo) powered away on the front with his Luxembourg
champion's jersey and kept any attacks from succeeding. At the third and final
intermediate sprint in Eghezée, O'Grady took the sprint from Cancellara
and Boonen, with the Maillot Jaune regaining time he lost in the first sprint.

Marc Wauters (Rabobank) and Jakob Piil (CSC) then made a classic counter attack
with 50km to go and quickly gained time on the peloton. Both riders are powerful
rouleurs and across the plains of the Province of Namur and through small towns
like Fleurus and Jemappes, the duo gained time despite the headwind.

With 25km to race, the dynamic duo had 1'45" on the Fassa-led peloton and the
Silver Train didn't seem that motivated to chase alone so the pace wasn't sustained
until Crédit Agricole and Lotto-Domo joined in the effort behind the
Belgian/Danish duo. With 20km to go, McGee dropped off the back and along with
his FDJeux.com teammate, Australian champion Matt Wilson, finished the long,
painful journey to Charleroi.

Up front, the powerful combo of Wauters and Piil went all out and increased
their lead to 1'45" with 30km to go, but the sprinters' teams got out their
calculators and managed to hold off the real chase until the final 1.6km, when
the break were absorbed by the peloton.

Julian Dean (Crédit Agricole) led out his teammate Hushovd perfectly,
but the power and experience of Kirsipuu paid off in the final meters for the
stage win.

Stage 2 - July 5: Charleroi-Namur, 197km

Stage Two loops south from Charleroi into France for 50km then heads back into
Belgium for a finish at Namur, which welcomed the Tour for the last time in
1959 where 1967 Tour winner Roger Pingeon took the winner's bouquet. Back in
Belgium, the Tour heads through Mons, a city that the race has never visited
and back along the Meuse River for a finish in Namur in front of the famous
Citadelle. With a turn at 200m to go on Boulevard Cauchy, it may be a better
sprint for McEwen than Petacchi or Cipollini on Monday.